The City of Saskatoon’s representatives to a Downtown Event and Entertainment District Advisory Group was expected to be rubber-stamped by City Council during its Monday meeting.

Mayor Charlie Clark plus councillors Troy Davies (pictured) and Cynthia Block are to join 14 other members of the group designed to foster connections between business, community partners, the provincial government and the city to support the successful implementation of the Downtown Event and Entertainment District project. Davies and Block will be the Advisory Group’s co-chairs. A new arena and a new or renovated convention centre are to be the project anchors. Project planning is in the early stages with the current focus on site selection for the arena. Six members of the public, recommended at last Thursday’s meeting of the City’s Governance and Priorities Committee are Ali Abukar – C-E-O of the Open Door Society, Bertrand Bartake – Archietect with Kindrachuk Agrey Archietecture, Alisha Esmail – C-E-O and owner of Road Coffee Inc., Geri Fernet – retired business proprietor, Shawna Nelson – hotel marketing and management with the James Hotel plus Stephen Yee – product manager with Andgo Systems. Saskatoon-Willowgrove M-L-A Ken Cheveldayoff was also accepted by the Committee into the Advisory Group as the provincial government’s recommended representative. The previously appointed members of the Advisory Group are Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Marc Arcand, Kathie Pruden-Nansel of the Metis Nation-Saskatchewan Western Region 2-A, Brent Penner from the Downtown Business Improvement District, Randy Pshebylo of the Riversdale Business Improvement District, Stephanie Clovechok of Tourism Saskatoon, Keith Moen of the North Saskatoon Business Association and Jason Aebig of the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.